A forum for those current students who are or may be transferring from one school to another. Post any questions, advice, or other transfer related comments here.

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So the long and short of it is that I had a 174/2.72, no extracurriculars, actually failed out of Duke freshman year, found myself at W&L. Could've been worse, I guess; before they came calling the only place that admitted me was Temple. Anyway, for the first time in my life I did a little work, and I find myself with a 4.0. Just for reference the top 5% line is usually around a 3.75, and there are only 120 people per class, so it's not like they're handing a ton of these out. So I wonder, where could I or will I get in? I figure I have pretty strong odds at a Georgetown, pretty low odds at a Harvard (which probably mostly wants people from the top of Penn and the like, people who very nearly could've got in in the first place), and, I don't know, pretty okay odds at a Virginia or Penn? Would you say that's about right, and what do I do (besides doing well this semester) to maximize my chances of getting in someplace better than Georgetown?

You should be shooting for HYSCCN. If you can get at least a 3.6 next semester I bet you can get into at least one of those. If you pull another 4.0, you could pull an HYS. I think at least 2 people from last year's W&L 1L class transferred to Columbia. I don't know of any HYS peeps, but the one guy who had a 4.0 as 1L didn't even try to transfer. I know one person went to UVA (at least). The admissions dean at UVA told me that people in the top 10% at W&L were a virtual lock for transfer admission to UVA. I wouldn't even bother with GULC. T10 is easy with a 4.0. The trick now is keeping your grades up. I made the mistake of slacking off 2nd semester.

Also, go see the transferapps group on Yahoo. They have databases that will give you some good info.

Well if I want to work in DC and generally suck at networking and job-hunting, might I not be better off at Georgetown than a UVA or even a Chicago, as the firms are all right there? On the other hand, I really want a clerkship before I enter the work force, so maybe the best school is best.

traydeuce wrote:Well if I want to work in DC and generally suck at networking and job-hunting, might I not be better off at Georgetown than a UVA or even a Chicago, as the firms are all right there? On the other hand, I really want a clerkship before I enter the work force, so maybe the best school is best.

Georgetown MIGHT be better, but UVA will probably have the upper hand with firms. Although if you keep your grades up you'll probably do fine either way. Personally I would go to UVA if I had the choice. If you can get into a T6 school though, go there. Once you hit Chicago or Columbia, it starts to get to the point where grades don't matter. Plus, either way you'll be paying full price. If it was UVA with a scholly versus Chicago full price, that'd be one thing, but it won't be like that. For a clerkship, basically the same deal. Yale, Harvard, and Chicago would probably be your best bet (I left out Stanford because I'm assuming you don't want to move to the west coast).

The worst part about this, not to sound like an arrogant prick, is that I really barely studied last semester, barely even took notes, and now I feel this pressure to ace everything again so I can get into Harvard. I also hate most of my professors and classes this go-around so it's tough to muster up much enthusiasm. Thanks though about the transferapps group, the numbers on their database are pretty encouraging.

traydeuce wrote:The worst part about this, not to sound like an arrogant prick, is that I really barely studied last semester, barely even took notes, and now I feel this pressure to ace everything again so I can get into Harvard. I also hate most of my professors and classes this go-around so it's tough to muster up much enthusiasm. Thanks though about the transferapps group, the numbers on their database are pretty encouraging.

Definitely the hardest part of the rest of law school...especially 2nd half of 1L. Good luck though.

traydeuce wrote:The worst part about this, not to sound like an arrogant prick, is that I really barely studied last semester, barely even took notes, and now I feel this pressure to ace everything again so I can get into Harvard. I also hate most of my professors and classes this go-around so it's tough to muster up much enthusiasm. Thanks though about the transferapps group, the numbers on their database are pretty encouraging.

Definitely the hardest part of the rest of law school...especially 2nd half of 1L. Good luck though.

See the thing is, I really do love ridiculously technical and boring stuff, Civil Procedure for instance, it's the classes where they attempt to make it interesting by trying to engage us in policy discussions that kill me. I have no interest in policy, I have no political views of any kind. I would much rather discuss what happens if one guy harpoons a whale, another guy fatally harpoons a whale, and the first guy's harpoon would have killed the whale if not for the second guy intervening than listen to this very cute but kind of dumb 30 year old professor be like, "soooooo.... what polllllllicies do you think they're trying to promoooooote here? And do you really thinkkkk that it's necessary to award the whale to the whale-killer to save the whaling industry? Maybe if they gave the whale to the finder the whale-killers would build bigger boaaaaats. New technologiiiiiiiies." Like I don't even buy that the rule is made to protect the whaling industry, it seems to me that it's just blatantly obvious as a matter of formalistic doctrine that when you kill the damn thing it's yours, I thought that was the whole point of Pierson v. Post. I mean, if I shoot a fox and kill it, you can't send your dog to race ahead of me and grab it. That's stealing. But no, all we do is talk about the policies the courts are supposedly trying to promote.

It is my understanding that schools do not have to report transfer data, so as a result can look past low entering stats. Plus OP already has a 174. The 3 big factors will be 1L rank/gpa + LSAT + UG GPA. With a 4.0 IL + 174 he's still in a good spot.

No guarantee I keep a 4.0 up though, you all realize. It really looks like all my exams this semester are going to be of the "if you were the king of the world what would you do about adverse possession" variety. If I were the king of the world adverse possession would be the last thing on my mind, but seriously, I'm just not creative or opinionated enough for that sort of thing.

traydeuce wrote:No guarantee I keep a 4.0 up though, you all realize. It really looks like all my exams this semester are going to be of the "if you were the king of the world what would you do about adverse possession" variety. If I were the king of the world adverse possession would be the last thing on my mind, but seriously, I'm just not creative or opinionated enough for that sort of thing.

traydeuce wrote:No guarantee I keep a 4.0 up though, you all realize. It really looks like all my exams this semester are going to be of the "if you were the king of the world what would you do about adverse possession" variety. If I were the king of the world adverse possession would be the last thing on my mind, but seriously, I'm just not creative or opinionated enough for that sort of thing.

#3 at GMU was rejected by Yale, Harvard, and Chicago, due to 2.4 UGPA.Top 8% at GMU was rejected by CCN due to 2.6 UGPA.

2.4 and 2.6 are a little worse than 2.72 - 2.4 is a lot worse, W&L's a little upwards of GMU, and I am currently at least tied for #1 and not #3 or just in the top 8%. I think I saw, on the transferapps group at yahoo, a 169 and 2.7 with great grades out of here get into Columbia. I think I'd want to wait to see if I at least start, I don't know, managing to stay awake in class this semester before I assume that I'm headed down and bind myself to some school. The truth is that the "if you ran the world" stuff is definitely not my strength, but it's not like issue-spotting and that rely on mutually exclusive skills. When it comes down to it, so long as I do the reading, pay attention in class, I'm sure I'd squeeze out some A minuses. It's not like anyone else likes talking about what amendments they'd like to make to the Rules of Civil Procedure either.

was just about to come and ask about transfers when I saw this thread. Thought I'd just tack on my question, and if it doesn't get many responses I'll start my own thread (sorry about the slight hijack, OP)

Anyway, I didn't do quite as well as the OP, but still ended up with a 3.8 at Boston College, which if it can be sustained (big if) would put me easily withing what's been top 5% for 1ls the past three years. My original #s were 4.0, 166. I'm happy enough at BC, and have almost 30k/year in scholarships, so I'm in a pretty good situation here. Does anyone think I should be considering transferring, and if so, where should I be aiming. Harvard would be ideal, since I wouldn't even necessarily have to switch apartments, but I realize that's probably a long shot. Any thoughts...? Stay? Leave? Dinner suggestions?

Oh, and I find myself in the same quandary as the OP: I seriously slacked off first semester. Now, do I rationalize that that method seemed to work pretty well and go for a repeat performance, or do I buckle down and work harder, thereby disrupting the fragile balance of 90% junk tv and afternoon naps vs. 10% studying I've grown accustomed to?

I would say you should at least spend the $80 application fee on Harvard. Other than that, I'm an idiot when it comes to job placement and how that goes. Obviously you'd have a good shot at many schools in the top 14 but whether that's worth it given your scholarship, I don't know. As for not slacking off this time around, I mean... my fear is that I just got easy exams or something, and that this semester's will be much harder. I don't see the actual subject matter being tougher; property and contracts are probably on a par, Civ Pro 1 and Civ Pro 2 are comparable, etc., but your professors could be very different than last semester's. If you can get at your professor's old exams, see if they look tougher, or dramatically different in some sort of study time-demanding way, than what you got last semester.

traydeuce wrote:2.4 and 2.6 are a little worse than 2.72 - 2.4 is a lot worse, W&L's a little upwards of GMU, and I am currently at least tied for #1 and not #3 or just in the top 8%. I think I saw, on the transferapps group at yahoo, a 169 and 2.7 with great grades out of here get into Columbia. I think I'd want to wait to see if I at least start, I don't know, managing to stay awake in class this semester before I assume that I'm headed down and bind myself to some school. The truth is that the "if you ran the world" stuff is definitely not my strength, but it's not like issue-spotting and that rely on mutually exclusive skills. When it comes down to it, so long as I do the reading, pay attention in class, I'm sure I'd squeeze out some A minuses. It's not like anyone else likes talking about what amendments they'd like to make to the Rules of Civil Procedure either.

if caricatures of chicago students are true, sounds like you'd absolutely hate it there. yale too i'm guessing

you sound like a harvard/columbia type man. i'd have to think you, at the very least, have a great shot at CCN, considering especially since nyu takes a bunch of transfers from brooklyn/dozo/etc. gotta be a lock at one of those.

traydeuce wrote:No guarantee I keep a 4.0 up though, you all realize. It really looks like all my exams this semester are going to be of the "if you were the king of the world what would you do about adverse possession" variety. If I were the king of the world adverse possession would be the last thing on my mind, but seriously, I'm just not creative or opinionated enough for that sort of thing.

#3 at GMU was rejected by Yale, Harvard, and Chicago, due to 2.4 UGPA.Top 8% at GMU was rejected by CCN due to 2.6 UGPA.

2.4 and 2.6 are a little worse than 2.72 - 2.4 is a lot worse, W&L's a little upwards of GMU, and I am currently at least tied for #1 and not #3 or just in the top 8%. I think I saw, on the transferapps group at yahoo, a 169 and 2.7 with great grades out of here get into Columbia. I think I'd want to wait to see if I at least start, I don't know, managing to stay awake in class this semester before I assume that I'm headed down and bind myself to some school. The truth is that the "if you ran the world" stuff is definitely not my strength, but it's not like issue-spotting and that rely on mutually exclusive skills. When it comes down to it, so long as I do the reading, pay attention in class, I'm sure I'd squeeze out some A minuses. It's not like anyone else likes talking about what amendments they'd like to make to the Rules of Civil Procedure either.

I don't think the difference between 2.7 and 2.4/2.6 and W&L and GMU is going to be huge. There are a couple of people with sub-3.0 on transferapps that made it into Chicago/NYU, though, so I do think you have a solid shot at CCN. I'm just saying that YHS is probably not in the cards. So the question is, would you rather have Chicago now, or potentially Columbia and a very slim shot at YHS next semester?